Stories
Heart from the
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Sister Ellen Kron
Always in Partnership with the Community
T
he Daughter of Charity Sister Ellen Kron serves as Vice President of Community Health Ministries for Ascension Health. Born and raised in New Orleans, Sister Ellen attended Catholic schools before going on to Louisiana State College. During her junior year, she took on a summer job at St. Elizabeth’s Children’s Home run by the Daughters of Charity, an orphanage providing residential treatment for girls ages 6–18. Sister Ellen loved that work and environment so much that she transferred to LSU in New Orleans for her senior year so that she could continue her efforts full time at St. Elizabeth’s. “I found that there was a consistency with my values and the values of the sisters. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s a fit.’ The ‘tug’ was definitely there.” She says that it “took a leap of faith,” but she applied to become a Daughter of Charity, which meant leaving New Orleans for a provincial house in St. Louis, Missouri, as a novice at age 23. Her first mission was assignment to a children’s home in Kansas City. A residential treatment center for abused and disturbed youngsters, it also served as a large day school for learning-disabled kids. Thereafter, she would find that care for disadvantaged children played a strong role in her journey as a Daughter of Charity. Over the years, her duties took her to numerous locations in various capacities, yet most often it was service in the name of children. Along the way, she attended graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis, obtaining master’s degrees in social work and in business. She also became involved in community health ministry and with Ascension Health. She was assigned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild, and it is where she still serves today. Sister Ellen became a member of the Sacred Heart Hospital Foundation board in 2011. The Daughters of Charity founded the original Sacred Heart Hospital more than a century ago. Their mission and challenge then of helping the poor and the sick has remained the same. But it’s a challenge that has always been met in collaboration and partnership with the community, which is part of their history and cofounding by St. Vincent DePaul and St. Louise de Marillac. Sister Ellen says, “Sacred Heart could never have done and can’t do what it does today without really dedicated, committed partners — people of good will, of right intention, of all faiths. As I sit on the board, I see a fervor in people committed to investing in and wanting to contribute to their community. “Their contributions will support the legacy of the Daughters of Charity with the building of a new Children’s Hospital. It’s ‘who’ we’re serving that is the ‘why’ we’re serving.”
Sister Ellen Kron, Daughter of Charity
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